Source: Susan Kelly, MEATINGPLACE, 8/31/17


The Humane Society of the United States hopes to get on California’s November 2018 ballot an initiative that would prohibit the sale of products derived from pigs confined in gestation crates and veal from crated calves, in addition to requiring that eggs must come from cage-free birds.

California voters in 2008 approved Proposition 2, which gave farmers until 2015 to comply with space requirements covering egg-laying hens. The law also covered breeding sows and veal calves to allow them to stand up, turn around and extend their limbs.

HSUS, in a press release, said it now seeks to upgrade California’s laws aimed at preventing cruelty to farm animals and protecting consumers from inhumanely produced and unsafe animal products. The new measure would:

1. Establish that eggs produced and sold in California must come from cage-free birds, requiring that within one year of enactment, eggs sold statewide would have to come from birds given one square foot of space each – often regarded as a cage-free standard. It would subsequently explicitly require that by Dec.  31, 2021, all birds must live in cage-free systems.
2. Require that pork sold in California come from farms that don’t lock pigs in gestation crates by Dec.  31, 2021.
3. Require that veal sold in California come from farms that don’t lock calves in veal crates by Dec.  31, 2019. 

HSUS said it has filed ballot language for the new measure with the California Attorney General as a step toward a statewide signature gathering campaign to launch this fall. If the ballot title and summary are approved, HSUS will then need to gather 365,880 signatures within 180 days for placement on the statewide ballot in November 2018.

NPPC responds
The National Pork Producers Council said the initiative is a form of regulation without representation, which it opposes. If all pork producers were forced to abandon gestation stalls, it would cost the pork industry between $1.9 billion and more than $3.2 billion to transition to an alternative housing system, NPPC said.

“Livestock production practices should be left to those who are most informed about animal care -- farmers -- and not animal rights activists. Additionally, changes in housing systems, which come with significant costs that increase food prices, should be driven by consumer purchasing decisions, not the agenda of any activist group,” NPPC said in a statement emailed to Meatingplace.

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